Top Scottish recruitment firm reveals reasons behind leap in turnover and outlines growth ambitions

An independent executive search and recruitment agency based in Edinburgh is targeting expansion after achieving a “substantial” increase in annual turnover, boosted by its growing activity in the renewable energy sector, but seeing its profits hampered by macroeconomic woes.

Eden Scott, which was established in 2003 “with a desire for something different”, has revealed that its income increased to just over £17 million in the financial year ending March 2024, from £13m in the previous year. However, it said that while it achieved good profit levels in 2022-23, the expected profit margins for the latest period “reflect the difficulties many businesses faced as the UK navigated harsh market conditions in the second half”.

The recruiter also explained that its strategic focus over the last few years, amid this challenging marketplace, has been to grow its contractor and temporary recruitment services on the back of demand, particularly in the burgeoning renewable energy sector, and said it is embarking on an “ambitious” two-year expansion plan.

'We are particularly focused on expanding our presence in the UK's renewable energy, engineering, and deep tech industries,' says CEO Michelle Lownie. Picture: Stewart Attwood.

Eden Scott, which hires into about 20 sectors, now has more than 40 staff in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and aims to grow its team by around 15 per cent and strengthen its position with key hires in its chosen growth sectors.

Co-founder and chief executive Michelle Lownie said: "The increase in turnover this financial year has been great to see. However, our profit levels were undoubtedly a result of the challenging conditions in the second half of the year as the market felt the impact of the recession.

“Decisions took longer, and hiring patterns adapted as business confidence wavered. However, our strategy has been to grow our temporary and contractor recruitment services to provide the flexibility our candidates and clients need. Our internal hiring process reflected this approach, as we recruited specialists in this area. I'm incredibly proud of our team's resilience in the face of difficult market conditions.

"Our growth strategy moving forward is ambitious and targeted. We are particularly focused on expanding our presence in the UK's renewable energy, engineering, and deep tech industries,” she said, with the firm also flagging Scotland’s burgeoning space sector as a key area of interest. The firm also runs TalentSpark, its start-up team supporting early-stage businesses to grow their workforces “through the sourcing of the very best talent”, while it last year inked a tie-up to deliver much-needed tech talent to firms in Scotland.

Lownie also stated: “Additionally, we are committed to supporting the development of Scotland's tech scene. Through sponsoring market-square influencers such as Scottish Edge and Young Company Finance and running Invest2Scale, we will continue to work hard with entrepreneurs to understand their challenges and find the exciting talent they need to grow the scaling businesses that can fuel our economy.

“Investor confidence is slowly returning both for early-stage businesses and more established companies. Larger deals, such as the £16.7m investment in Orbex, highlight how important it is that our team is on hand to support them.”